The engineer from Borgo Panigale: We are more competitive than last season. Lorenzo? He'll have time to get sorted

This weekend will be the opener for the World Grand Prix Motorcycle Championship season and Gigi Dall’Igna took the opportunity to grant an exclusive interview to our counterparts at Sky Sport. At Paolo Lorenzi’s microphone, the Ducati Corse general manager summed up the pre-season and at the same time revealed the expectations for 2018, pausing to talk about Dovizioso and Lorenzo.

The engineer is convinced of the GP18’s potential, especially in comparison to the 2017: “We are in a better position than last season – he revealed – At the end of the winter tests a year ago, there were more shadows than light and we hadn’t shone very brightly.” Now the situation seems to be the opposite: “We are calm and confident, but keeping our feet on the ground – he pointed out – The tests went well, but often everything changes in the race.”

One of the obstacles last year was the bike’s difficulty in mid-corner: “Our riders say that this aspect has improved – he revealed – but there is still work to be done and in the first part of the season we’ll bring more changes. In reality, the problems are never fully solved, because new ones inevitably pop up – he added – As far as what the team has done, however, I would talk about an evolution and not a proper revolution.”

The long winter highlighted a Dovizioso in grand form, whereas Lorenzo still seems to be searching for the right confidence: “Jorge’s performance is due to a combination of factors –Dall’Igna specified – In the last test in Qatar there was an improvement. In any case, he’ll have time to get sorted.”